iPlayer Creator Quits BBC After Growing Sick of Sluggish Culture

The co-creator of the iPlayer has quit the BBC in a sulk about too many oars being stuck in too many kettles by too many chefs, claiming the BBC's management "didn't understand" much of the work being done within its own departments.

Tony Ageh is currently the controller of archive development at the BBC, a position he's about to abandon to join the New York Public Library in a similar digital archivist capacity. And he's had it with the BBC, telling the Guardian: "Everything I told the BBC to do they didn’t understand or do. There’s no shortage of ideas at the BBC but it’s about whether that idea survives the BBC’s power testing of ideas. I am good at making ideas survive that process, which means they survive the outside world."

He seems to think the BBC's becoming a bit elitist in prioritising some demographics over others these days, adding of the attitudes of his new employer: "I feel I could have more impact on those kids in Walthamstow from NY than I could from W12. They are already ahead of the BBC in their thinking -- the same Reithian, public service values."

Sounds like it was having to repeatedly tolerate niche BBC Four prog rock documentaries that pushed him over the edge. [Guardian via Telegraph]